Pictures typically include a hanger bracket on a rear side and near a top of the picture for hanging the picture on a wall-mounted nail. Because the hanger bracket is on a rear side of the picture, determining where a nail needs to be mounted on a wall for the desired picture location is challenging, and often involves a trial-and-error process. Either one has to settle with the picture located not quite at the desired location and/or is left with numerous unsightly extra holes in the wall from the trial-and-error process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,906 proposes a wall-marking device that is releasably attachable to a suspension element on the article to be hanged. The attached wall-marking device is used to mark a desired location for placing a nail in the wall. This wall-marking device and/or separation of a wall-marking device from a frame hanger creates multiple issues. First, separation of a wall-marking device from a frame hanger causes the burden of having to attach and detach the wall-marking device to/from the frame hanger not designed to receive this wall-marking device before/after marking the desired location for placing a nail on the wall. Also, since all frames and hangers have different sizes and shapes it is difficult to create a single marking device that would easily attach to various hangers. Although U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,906 proposes a variety of forms and shapes to fit different frames and hangers, it doesn't offer any universal solution. Further, the wall-marking device has to be temporarily attached to the frame or hanger in order to be used, creating an issue of accuracy. A marker that is not permanently attached to a hanger will likely move once a person hanging a picture will put some pressure on it in his or her efforts to identify the best location for a piece of art or other object. That lack of fixation is a potential source of inaccuracy in marking. Moreover, the proposed variety of models (rather than one universal solution) makes it difficult to manufacture and use by those groups of people that it was thought for.